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Otter Cottage gets solar hot water

Ian has put the solar hot water panels onto Otter cottage...





...the last of our self catering accommodation to get them. These ones should really cook – being on a south facing roof. All we need now is the sunshine. Poor Ian must have wondered whether it was all worth it as he worked alternately on the roof with rain dripping down his neck and in the loft with tar dust falling in his hair!

We rushed it through because guests who had booked Beech and Nuthatch lodges also wanted the cottage – a bit party get together.

The system came from Navitron again. Ian says they've made some improvements. The new pumping station was much easier to fit than the old one and the clips on the actual tubes were better too.

See our other posts on installing solar:
Energy monitoring put to good use
DIY tips for installing solar panels
Energy saving switches for the lodges

Buying local brings us local benefits

Once again we’re seeing the value of buying local...





...Ian is working on the floor for the new eco lodge.

First step was to get rid of the old floor and non-structural block walls. We were going to break up the concrete and re-use it in gabions to build a bank and reinforce the front of the building (waste not want not!). But Martin Bragg, our local (and reliable ... and well-priced...) digger driver had a better idea - scrape up a temporary bund, build the bank with the recycled concrete, then cover over with earth. Thanks Martin, that saved a few pounds on difficult-to-fill wire gabions, gave us the structure we needed, and created a much better feature.

Next task was to source the aggregate for the floor. The first lot came from Jewsons in Okehampton (11 miles), but it arrived in a huge delivery truck that buckled the edge of the concrete drive and barely manoeuvred through the gate. So when we realised a local builders merchant, AMP building supplies, was based at Winkleigh’s old WWII airfield, that seemed much more sensible. Phil turned up in a much smaller vehicle, and instead of having to set up a business account, with credit references etc, he just said ‘I’ll leave the tab open if you’ll be wanting some more'.

And once that was done, we needed some custom-made steel ‘shoes’ to keep the existing wooden posts inside the building from penetrating the damp course (see picture). Sounds complicated. But luckily, Chris Hodgson’s engineering workshop in nearby Hollocombe was more than willing to help, even tidying up Ian’s sketched drawings before they went for fabrication.

It's surprising what's available on your doorstep when you look! It's good for us, and it's good for the local economy too - these are the people we meet 'down the pub' and in the village, and that make Winkleigh a thriving community.

Impressive U values for the eco lodge floor

Ian has finished calculating the thermal insulation value (the U value) for the floor of the new eco lodge.




The U value measures the overall ability of a wall/roof/floor to prevent heat loss. It’s measured in Watts per square metre per degree Kelvin (W/m2.k) and takes into account all the thermal conductivity (k values) of the components of the structure, as well as other factors that affect how heat is lost from the building. Until recently, building regulations required floors to have a U value of 0.7 or below. That’s now been brought down to 0.22 W/m2.k. So how do we fare?

Well, it's not quite finished yet, as the picture shows, but here's the plan. The floor will be high-proportion recycled aggregate, then 150mm insulation (Kingspan, for it's exceptional insulation value, which we think outweighs it's only light-green manufacturing process - well they have been trying at least), then another 150mm of concrete made of 70% ash cement and recycled aggregate. Because it’s above the insulation, this layer becomes part of the thermal mass of the building, acting as a heat store to help regulate temperature. On top of that we’ll be putting down larch floor boards sourced locally (8 miles) from Mike Moser’s oak woodland restoration project.

Overall, that will give us a U value of 0.11 W/m2.k – twice as good as the 2010 building regulations.

Scrub bashing on Popehouse Moor SSSI

[Maggie] We've taken a huge stride forward in habitat management this year...




...but now it's time to finish the job by tidying up! We've been burning brash from our 'scrub bashing'.

We have a lot of really overgrown hedgerows on the farm, and in Popehouse Moor SSSI the willows have 'fall off' the Devon banks, and branches have taken root in what should really be grassland. Too much willow isn't good for wet grassland - it sucks the water from the ground, transpiring it through leaves, drying out the soil.

If you've been on a guided tour here, you may not agree with botanist Mary Breeds, who last year told us the site would be better wetter, but we've taken her advice and cut back some of the invasion.

My Dad started it over Christmas - with just a bow saw. Inspired by the potential that small difference made, we had 2 days chainsaw work done. That's by no means all of it, and we don't want to hit it all too hard in one go. But it has revealed some of the old hedge boundaries, and will significantly increase the grassland area.

Now we have to get the branches off the ground before the spring comes. If the birds start nesting there we won't be able to shift them. And the boughs will set root in the wet ground again, making the problem worse than ever.

Like they have in this picture.

So it's been bonfire time...

And for anyone who's thinking 'what a waste', we've saved what we could, as you can see in these wood piles. Our trouble is getting it off the moor and back up to the house where we can burn it. There's no vehicle access and the ground is boggy.



Log by log then? Lots more excuses to go down to this special place!

We've been selected as a Much Better Adventure!

We are delighted to have been accepted as one of the early members of muchbetteradventures.com, a carefully selected community of fantastic adventure providers who have a strong ongoing commitment to sustainability...


You can see us featured as part of their local travel directory, which puts you in direct contact (no commission) with handpicked active holidays, tours, courses and accommodation. The site also provides travellers reviews, the resources you need to book a low carbon journey, and has started a collection of community built guides to each activity or sport, where users are invited to share their favourite spots, useful info, ideas and inspiration.

Since going live a few months ago the site has grown quickly. Muchbetteradventures.com aim to build the widest and fairest selection of responsible adventure travel and equipment choices that outdoor lovers have ever seen, and bring support to many important conservation and community development projects around the world.

Check out our Wheatland Farm eco lodge profile. You can help us to benefit from this site by leaving a review of us, and by spreading the word to your friends.

Green green heating fuel

Here's some of our green heating fuel, three times green but not because it's green wood though...





...it's actually dry and seasoned - always more efficient in a wood burner.

More importantly, it's reusing waste - saw mill offcuts.


And it's local - the mobile mill is working a wood about 8 miles from us.


And on top of that it's a conservation project restoring an oak woodland by selectively felling conifer plantation. So the felling will be matched by a rejuvenated 'native species' woodland in our lovely corner of Devon.

And the icing on the cake? It probably saves us a significant outlay on heating oil for the house. OK, the house is 'cool' in the original meaning of the term, but we haven't had to buy central heating oil for about a year and a half now.

Here's Ian unloading the trailer.

And here's another earlier blog post about this source of sustainable timber - which we also hope to use in the new eco lodge we're building. The cutting list has been sent off already!